“Try me,” Cha Ming said.
“Have you heard of high-grade immortal jades?” Elder Zhong asked.
Cha Ming shook his head.
“Then let’s move on to other items.”
Since I’m here, I might as well stock up, Cha Ming thought. He listed a large number of medicinal herbs, metals, liquified elemental essence, and elemental essence.
“The total comes to 150,000 high-grade spirit stones,” Elder Zhong said.
“Including secrecy?” Cha Ming asked.
“Including secrecy,” Elder Zhong said. Conveniently for the older man, this was the exact worth of the fifteen bottles of peak-grade Grandmist pills he’d placed in front of him. Cha Ming had expected this result, which was why he’d added on as many valuable goods as possible. He nodded, and Elder Zhong swiped the pile of bottles away. “Pleasure doing business with someone who appreciates the value of secrecy.”
“I don’t suppose Zhou Li is one of those who doesn’t?” Cha Ming asked.
“Unfortunately for you, he pays a premium for it,” Senior Zhong said. “I personally gouge him. The Spirit Temple, on the other hand… I’d be happy to provide you with details on them. For just ten bottles of peak Grandmist pills, I can give you all the juicy details about their dealings in the Ji Kingdom for the past thousand years.”
“Not interested,” Cha Ming said.
“A pity,” Elder Zhong said. “They’ve always been cheapskates. I could give you a discount. Maybe… eight bottles?”
Seeing that Cha Ming wasn’t interested, he sighed and walked over to the side. The formation he’d come through activated, revealing a small ring containing what he’d asked for. Cha Ming inspected the contents and confirmed they were all there.
“Are you sure you’re not interested?” Elder Zhong probed. “I’ll tell you what. Five pills.”
Cha Ming ignored him. It wasn’t that he didn’t want the information; he simply couldn’t afford it anymore. He only had two Grandmist pills left. Fortunately, the rest of his plan didn’t involve too much money. Besides, he already had a dossier of information on the Spirit Temple, courtesy of Wang Jun.
“Maybe next time,” Elder Zhong muttered. “Is that everything?”
“Yes, that’s everything,” Cha Ming said.
The man nodded and stepped back into the teleportation formation, traveling to heavens knew where. Cha Ming, goods in tow, exited the Greenwind Pavilion. He made his way back to the hotel, where Mo Ling was waiting.
Chapter 12: Weapon Focus
Another day, another blade, Cha Ming thought, standing up from his cultivation. His room, though small, was well-furnished. It didn’t contain a bed—cultivators didn’t need beds—but it had a sofa and a tea table, complete with an Angels and Devils board. The area where he’d been sitting was inscribed with an energy-gathering formation, which could be used to convert qi from top-grade spirit stones and reinforce his cultivation. It was naturally a cover—the real location where he cultivated was the Clear Sky World, where he could accelerate time by up to five times.
Cha Ming stretched before walking out the door and heading downstairs. He was greeted by a cheerful Mo Ling. At her insistence, she’d become the attendant and bookkeeper in his workshop. Her work, though slow, was impeccable, freeing up much of his time for cultivation and smithing.
“How have the latest negotiations with our material suppliers gone?” Cha Ming asked, stopping in front of the large wooden desk at the entrance. On top of her administrative duties, she also served as a gatekeeper for the workshop, keeping potential customers away as the blacksmiths worked between appointments. Workshops were dangerous places, and it wasn’t prudent to let outsiders wander inside.
“They’re tough,” Mo Ling said, retrieving a pile of papers two stacks over from the one she’d been working on. “I’ve managed to secure a fifteen-percent discount by playing three of them off each other. I think it might be possible to negotiate a five-percent discount if we guarantee minimum volumes.”
Cha Ming thought for moment, then shook his head. “I’d prefer not to lock us in. An open contract is fine with a fifteen-percent discount.”
Mo Ling nodded. She’d grown used to his reluctance to commit to anything long term. “I’ll shoot for eighteen percent and see what that gets us.”
Satisfied with her work, Cha Ming entered the workshop. “Grandmaster,” one of the apprentices greeted as he entered.
“At ease,” Cha Ming said to the man, who was busy refining lakebed iron. The strong man pounded away at the material, working a fine dusting of amorphous demon shale into it. Lakebed iron didn’t need much refining, as much of the sediment had been washed away in underwater currents where it accumulated. The demon shale—at least the amorphous variety—would help mitigate the only downside of the ore: the excess water qi it naturally contained.
Today, Cha Ming was going to make a work of art. It was an important weapon, the first of three that he’d need to create. He walked over to an area at the back, where many important metals were stored. There, he arrived at a heavy black chest that had been delivered yesterday morning. Rather than try to lift the heavy box, Cha Ming opened it using a special key he’d been given; the chest popped open, revealing a dark-red orb.
A bloody aura instantly filled the room. As it did, the apprentice who’d been merrily hammering away at the lakebed iron suddenly yelled in anger and threw the ingot across the room. Cha Ming quickly closed the chest and faced the apprentice, who looked down apologetically.
“I’m sorry, Grandmaster,” he said.
“It’s my fault,” Cha Ming replied. “I’ve never worked with demon blood steel before. I didn’t know its rage-inducing effects would be so potent.”
Now, how to mitigate this, he thought. His first instinct was to set up a formation, but Pai Xiao was no formation artist. So he walked to the front, where Mo Ling sat shaking from head to toe. It seemed she, too, had been affected by the malevolent aura.
Cha Ming walked out of the workshop and returned one hour later with an arrogant-looking man. Upon arriving,
